While most people struggle to lose weight, there are those out there who are trying to gain weight. Whether it is to make a team, or you just decided that being too skinny has a lot of drawbacks, some people decide they have to put on a few pounds. Here's how to put on some weight in a healthy way.
Steps
- Determine how many calories your body requires per day to maintain your existing weight by calculating your resting metabolic rate (RMR). Find a calculator online or use the following equation (called the Mifflin-St Jeor equation):
- RMR = 9.99w + 6.25s - 4.92a + 166g-161
- w = weight in kilograms; if you know your weight in pounds, divide by 2.2 to get your weight in kilograms
- s = height in centimeters; if you know your height in inches, multiply by 2.54 to get your height in centimeters
- a = age in years
- g = gender = 1 for males, 0 for females
- w = weight in kilograms; if you know your weight in pounds, divide by 2.2 to get your weight in kilograms
- Your daily consumption to maintain your weight should be:[1] RMR x 1.15 (E.g. RMR = 2000, so the maintenance intake is 2000 x 1.15 = 2300)
- RMR = 9.99w + 6.25s - 4.92a + 166g-161
- Calculate how many calories you need to consume per day to gain weight. Add at least 500 calories per day to your daily requirement. If you need 2300 calories a day to maintain your current weight, strive to consume 2800 calories daily. If you engage in any physical activity, add more calories to account for the calories burned through physical activity. For instance, a 130 lb. person who does 30 minutes of vigorous weight training burns approximately 180 calories.[2] On that day, he or she should consume 500 + 180 calories in addition to the daily requirement calculated in the previous step.
- Change your eating habits. Aim for three large meals and 2-3 hefty snacks per day.[3] Drink shakes, milk, or juice instead of water, coffee, tea, or diet soda.[3] Focus on the following foods:
- Breads - hearty and dense (whole wheat, oat bran, pumpernickel, rye) are more nutritious than white bread; cut thick slices and spread generously with peanut butter, jam, honey, hummus, or cream cheese.
- Vegetables - look for starchy vegetables (potatoes, peas, corns, carrots, winter squash, beets) versus watery vegetables (broccoli, cauliflower, zucchini, green beans, cucumbers).
- Fruit - choose dense fruit (bananas, pears, apples, pineapple, dried fruit) over watery fruit (oranges, peaches, plums, berries, watermelon).
- Soups - Go for hearty cream soups instead of broth-based soups. If you have trouble with edema or high blood pressure you may want to avoid all store-bought soup.
- Added oils - in cooking, add a generous amount of oil. The healthiest oils are unrefined (extra virgin) oils such as olive, coconut, canola, palm, and of course butter. The less healthy but still acceptable sources of oil are those high in omega-6 fatty acids (pro-inflammatory) such as safflower, sunflower, and peanut oils. The unhealthy oils are those containing trans fat such as shortening, and the antinutrient-rich soybean oil (aka vegetable oil).
- Spreads! - Spreading delicious calorie-rich toppings on toast, crackers, pita, and any other carbohydrate source is an excellent way to increase caloric intake. Some good high-calorie spreads are guacamole, olive oil, cream cheese, hummus, butter, nut butters, sour cream, cheese slices, mayonnaise. Even better is to mix these with shredded meats like chicken or fish. One of my personal favorites is canned salmon mixed with olive oil and vinegar.
- Breads - hearty and dense (whole wheat, oat bran, pumpernickel, rye) are more nutritious than white bread; cut thick slices and spread generously with peanut butter, jam, honey, hummus, or cream cheese.
- Avoid unhealthy, high-calorie foods. Most important is to avoid trans fats, which increase your risk for disease. Foods that are high in trans fats are: pastry products, cakes, cookies, processed meats, margarine, shortening, and packaged snack foods. [4]
- Weight train. This will not only help convert the additional calories into muscle rather than fat, but it will also stimulate your appetite. The added muscle will increase your metabolism, so you'll need to consume more calories per day to maintain that weight. During the first month of weight training, you may experience tremendous gains if you are faithful to your schedule. However, also expect this to level off after this initiatory period (This is known in the bodybuilding world as a plateau). You overcome this by re-evaluating your weight and muscle mass, while altering your diet to include more food and heavier weights.
- Eat more protein. Protein is essential for body function to build and repair muscle tissue. If you don't consume enough protein from raw foods or protein supplements then gaining weight and building muscle will be unachievable. Those looking to gain weight should consume at least 1 gram of quality protein per pound of body weight.
Tips
- Drink enough water.
- Note that some other things such as how much sleep you get and how frequently you get it will affect your metabolism. If you keep a regular sleeping pattern, your body will have an easier time storing nutrients as muscle.(source?) Also, if you deal with ailments/symptoms such as depression or diabetes, they will affect your ability to gain weight.
- Beginner weight trainers are often "afflicted" with DOMS (Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness).[5] This soreness is completely normal and should not prevent one from keeping to their weight training schedule. It goes away after a couple days.
Warnings
- Remember that anything in excess is bad, so watch out for surpassing the limit when eating proteins and fats.
- Be ready for some funny looks, reactions, and possible "interrogation" if you tell people you're trying to gain weight.
- Extremely fast weight gain may cause stretch marks and other skin damage.
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